Rockstar says Red Dead Redemption will feature three different difficulty modes, and while they're limited mostly to just the game's aiming feature the studio is calling the variable difficulty a first for any open-world game it's ever built.

There will be an expert free-aim mode with no auto-lock, a standard aiming mode that snaps the crosshairs to the target, and then the dreaded "casual" (no, not that word!), which gives a full auto-aim plus faster regenerating health.

"First time we have done this in an open world game, so we will be interested to see what people think having played with each option," a dev wrote in the company's weekly Q&A.

The Q&A also clarifies this game's relationship to its ancestor, 2004's Red Dead Revolver. "It's definitely not a narrative sequel – more of a spiritual successor," Rockstar writes, saying the studio decided on delivering the American West in an open world game "while finishing Red Dead Revolver." So this idea has been gestating for a very long time indeed.